A circuit wiring board has a structure such that on the surface thereof electronic components of various kinds are mounted such as resistance elements, capacitors and semiconductor circuit elements, the electronic components are electrically connected via a wiring pattern, and a board connector is connected to one terminal end of the wiring pattern. Further, an external connector is connected to the board connector, and through this external connector, power, signals and so forth are supplied to the electronic components on the circuit wiring board, or signals and the like are sent out from the electronic components to the exterior.
Many different types of such board connector and external connector have been developed to date. A typical example of such board connector is disclosed in JP-A-11-86987 issued in Japan.
The electrical connector disclosed in the aforementioned JP-A-11-86987 will now be described with reference to FIG. 11. FIG. 11 illustrates the electrical connector set forth in the aforementioned published patent application, FIG. 11A being an overall perspective view of the electrical connector, FIG. 11B being a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the electrical connector in FIG. 11A, and FIG. 11C being a longitudinal cross-sectional view of another electrical connector.
The electrical connector 30 has multiple contact terminals 34, 35 and a housing 31 that has insertion holes in which the contact terminals are housed. The connector assembly resulting when these parts are assembled together is fixed to a circuit wiring board P. The housing 31 consists of an electrically insulative rectangular block having relatively large breadth, height and depth. In this block, multiple insertion holes 32, 33 are disposed in the widthwise direction in two rows, an upper and a lower. Each row of the insertion holes 32, 33 runs through the block from the front face toward the rear face, and to the fore of such holes there are formed fitting apertures 32a, 33a into which other contact terminals fit. The two rows, upper and lower, of the insertion holes 32, 33 house the contact terminals 34, 35 of differing lengths. Each of the contact terminals 34, 35 has at one end a contacting portion to which a contact terminal of another connector is connected, and at the other end a connection portion 342 or 352 that is electrically connected to the contacts 36 on the board, and a linking portion 341 or 351 that links the contacting portion and the connection portion. The whole takes roughly the shape of a letter L and is formed from sheet metal material of good electrical conductivity. The contact terminals 35 that are housed in the upper row of insertion holes 33 have the linking portions 351 formed long, while the contact terminals 34 that are housed in the upper row of insertion holes 32 have the linking portions 341 formed short.
Assembly of the electrical connector 30 is completed by inserting and fixing the contact terminals 35 with linking portions formed long into the upper row of insertion holes 33 in the connector housing 31, and the contact terminals 34 with linking portions formed short into the upper row of insertion holes 32 in the connector housing 31. In the assembled connector 30, the connector housing 31 is mounted on the surface of the circuit wiring board P, the connection portions of the contact terminals 34, 35 are connected to the contacts on the board by soldering or the like, and the connector housing is fixed by a fixing unit not shown in the drawings.
With this electrical connector, the contact terminals 34, 35 housed in the connector housing 31 are roughly even with the circuit wiring board, so that the external connector can be inserted into the fitting apertures in a roughly horizontal direction. The contact terminals of the external connector have respective lead wires connected thereto that are drawn out from the external connector's housing, and these lead wires too are disposed in a roughly horizontal direction.
However, sometimes during design of the circuit wiring board, space to draw the lead wires out in a horizontal direction relative to the board cannot be secured, and the wires must be drawn out above the board. The electrical connector 30A in FIG. 11C is so configured that the external connector can be connected above the board. Like the above-described electrical connector 30, the electrical connector 30A has a connector housing 31A and contact terminals 34A, 35A.
Another typical instance of an electrical connector is set forth in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0266254. This connector is so configured that the angle of the connection portions can be varied 90 degrees.
Due to the relation between the circuit wiring board and the electrical connector mounted thereon, it may happen that, for convenience of design of the circuit wiring board, the lead wires connected to the electrical connector have to be drawn out in different directions depending on the place where the electrical connector is mounted on the board. If the electrical connector set forth in the foregoing JP-A-11-86987 is used in such a case, two types of the electrical connector 30, 30A with differing contact terminal shapes will be necessary. Using electrical connectors of different types will lead to high cost, and moreover the storage and management of the connectors will be bothersome, as will the tasks of selecting and installing the connectors, since such must be selected according to the place where mounted on the circuit wiring board. Also, once a connector has been installed to the circuit wiring board, it is not possible to alter the direction in which the lead wires are drawn out. In other words, the draw-out direction of the lead wires is fixed for each connector and cannot be altered.
With the electrical connector set forth in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0266254, although the angle of the connection portions can be varied 90 degrees, the places of installation to the circuit wiring board are constrained, and thus there are inherent issues similar to the electrical connector described earlier.